Navajo Weaver
By Anna Prince Redd
For days she sits, intent before her loom,
Sapling slim, cross-legged on the sand;
The young, hard muscles of her hand,
Flint-smooth and brown, wend the shuttle broom
In and out between the warp, and flay
The glowing yarns into a free design
Of trees, of rain, and lightning’s jagged line,
Tall corn, and sun-god’s arrowed ray.
The loom is full; long shadows leave the sun.
She knows her tribal legends – and she should:
No dark threads meet to hedge the evil one
Lest he destroy the beautiful and good;
But newer meaning shapes the old designs
And on the weaver’s face a new light shines.
(1950)
I really want to give Sister Redd credit for writing a sonnet, but I cannot find any reference to any sort of weaving that uses a shuttle ‘broom.’ Nor can I find any meaning of the word ‘flay’ that describes the act of laying down yarn in the warp of a loom. So I am forced to the regrettable conclusion that she sacrificed meaning for neat rhymes. Alas.
I’ve duplicated at least some of your search, Laura, and suppose I have to agree. I can *almost* accept “flay” as a sort of poetic substitution for “beat” if the weaver is using a stick quite forcefully to pack the weft threads, but the more literal meaning of “flay” gets in the way. And the only use of “broom” I can find is the direction to use a broom handle in making a temporary, almost toy-like loom.
I have woven on 4 harness, tapestry, rigid heddle, and backstrap looms. None of them is exactly like a Navajo loom, but pretty close. I also question the assertion that a Navajo weaver wouldn’t use dark threads. This is where knowing too much gets in the way.
Without any personal knowledge on my part as to Navajo beliefs or practices, I know that Anna Prince Redd, who lived in Southern Utah and was closely associated with the Navajo people, wrote a number of short stories and barely disguised historical fictions about the Hole in the Rock expedition, and reservation life, and individuals she knew in both the Anglo and Navajo worlds there. Whether accurate or mistaken, I suspect she had some particular tradition in mind when she wrote these lines.
Regardless of such questions, there can be little doubt that she admired and respected much about Navajo culture. This poem, for instance, is very positive in its depiction of the weaver and her knowledge of old ways and her adaptation to new ways. I think it’s that blending of old and new that attracted me to this poem.